We have done a lot of writing and reading now. We have spent considerable energy thinking about the injustices and social norms that gender scripts occupy. In this part of the course, we move into QUEERING our critiques more. Now we push ourselves even more to question: what is normal and who gets to count as normal; how does normal come to exist--- for whom, when, where, why; and who is excluded or oppressed by multiple norms. We will use queer theory to get us there (You can click here for a witty, no-holds-barred online overview of queer theory by the founder of critical-theory.com, Eugene Wolters.) Our next sessions merge LGBT studies and queer theory (which might seem overlapping but are not the same.)

To the students in this course

For those who take and finish out Introduction to Gender Studies with a BANG, you might consider joining the curatorial team in summer of 2017. You must be enrolled as a college student, have good standing in gender studies courses, and maintain a strong ePort/website. This section of the website is waiting for your imprint! For more about the curators, click here.

Your writing assignment is a bit different for today. Gender theorists and activists often read Gender Trouble multiple times, with reading groups, in graduate classes. You are NOT expected to "get" every word, every sentence. Find the places that you understand bestand, as a group, in class, we will make meaning together of this important book! For this writing assignment, you are going to create a double-entry log. The assignment is designed to help you read Butler's writing closely vs. write an essay. On one side of the page, you need to write a direct quote from Butler--- choose a sentence/section you UNDERSTAND and write it out EXACTLY as it is written; 2) on the other side, you are going to write your comments. ​